Skye Eagleday Guest Post & Giveaway

  Hello Lovelies!

Please help me welcome Skye Eagleday to Royal Reviews as she tells us about her shifters and the inspiration behind them.

Does it seem like the year of the Shifter to you? They’re everywhere! I’ll be honest—when I started writing full time I thought I’d be focused on vampires, but suddenly Werewolves and an extremely Alpha Werebear took center stage. Not that I’m complaining. I’m American Indian and I was trained as a traditional Storyteller. I grew up hearing of legends about all sorts of Shape-Shifters, and the ultimate one was Coyote who could not only change shapes, but genders as well. There’s a long history of many Native Nations who claim descent from various Spirit Animals. Most readers encountered their first Native Werewolves in the Twilight novels. The Quileute People featured in Twilight are like many Natives whose stories say they are Children of the Wolf.

 

I should mention there are no known Native American equivalents to European style

vampires, so when I created the Native American vampire Ash (who appears in Thirst: Tales of Vampire Romance) I used the European mythos in shaping him. I didn’t necessarily feel the same restrictions with my Shifters. Native tales don’t have the “full moon” requirement, so I started doing a mix of modern and ancient, where my Alphas could shift at any time, but most non-Alphas had to wait to be Called by the Moon. One of my personal favorite characters that basically wrote himself is Josh, the young hero in Virgin Gay Werewolf, where he has just started as a Freshman in college without ever having Shifted. His immediate focus is on finally Shifting and finally getting laid. I liked the metaphor of Shifters being “different” in the way the LGBT community is “different.” In both cases, their identity intersects all ethnicities, genders, ages, and classes. They can also “pass” as “standard people.” It’s not until they “out themselves” one starts to publically see what those differences are.

 

That was on my mind when I wrote “Roots & Fangs” (with rising star Ripley Sage) my contribution to the new boxed set, Highland Shifters. There are three main characters—a Scottish-American retracing the steps his grandfather took from Scotland to the States, a male Scottish Fae, and an Irish Pooka.   Like Coyote, the Pooka is a Shape-Shifter who can become anything, and after seducing the Fae as a female, the Pooka becomes a male and starts the seduction dance once more.  One of the themes I consistently play with (and especially in Highland Shifters and Thirst: Tales of Vampire Romance) is the challenge of being practically immortal as a Supernatural being. It seems to me one either strives to stay connected to the “Now,” or one stays too “locked” into the past. Living in a past that no longer exists can result in becoming progressively crazy and disconnected, which happens to a lot of the oldest vampires in my works. Ash deals with this by constantly completing college degrees and surrounding himself with university students. My Pooka does it by becoming a computer expert and a jewel thief, combining the new with his old experiences.

 

It was also fun doing research for my Highlands setting and discovering the story of the Wulver. Originally from the Shetland Islands (my Wulver is just attending a local Highlands Fae festival) who is said to have a kind heart and leaves gifts of fish for poor humans. Even in the older tales, not all Shifters are monsters.

Buy Links

Highland Shifters

Amazon |Apple/Itunes |B&N

Thirst: Tales of Vampire Romance

Amazon  | Apple/Itunes   | B&N

Romancing the Wolf (BBW Paranormal Romance)

Amazon | Apple/Itunes  | B&N

Virgin Gay Werewolf

Amazon (exclusive to Amazon)

Tales of the Werebear:

Amazon | Apple/Itunes | B&N

About the Author:

NY Times and USA Today Best Selling Author and the winner of many awards, Skye Eagleday has over seventy titles, with a focus on Paranormal and BBW Romance. He also publishes specific Native American books under the name Ty Nolan. His Tales of the Werebear series has been consistently popular among readers, along with Romancing the Wolf: BBW Paranormal Romance. Skye is a retired university professor and family therapist who spends his time outside of Phoenix as well as Seattle, both of which have provided the settings for his writings. And yes—he’s also written about “Cowboys and Indians,” (it’s genetic) although the Native Americans have all been BBW.

You can find Skye on Facebook, visit his website: SkyeEagleday.blogspot.com, and sign up for his newsletter: http://eepurl.com/T3F-j 

Giveaway

Skye is giving away two $10 Amazon Gift Cards and a $5 Amazon Gift Card. Enter Below

  

a Rafflecopter giveaway